Vol. 1 No.
1 Page 5 Behavior Analyst Today
represent the typical setting in
which most clinical psycholo-
gists practice and when these be-
havioral treatments appear, they
are similar to cognitive treat-
ments (e.g., Cautela, 1967). CBA
should accept the challenges and
frustrations of working in set-
tings where the clinician has lim-
ited or no direct influence on the
contingencies outside of the ther-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
apy session and that CBA has
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
something to offer that is unique.
A number of clinical behavior
analysts have developed research
agendas studying the application
of a behavior analytic theoretical
interpretation to the treatment of
the problems of high functioning,
verbal adults. For example, sev-
eral publications over the last
decade have addressed issues
relevant to outpatient clinical
settings (e.g., Dougher, 1993;
1994; Follette, Naugle & Cal-
laghan, 1996; Hayes, Jacobson,
What Does Organizational Behavior Management Have to Offer Social
Service Organizations? An OBM Primer for ABA’ers
By Joseph Cautilli, M.Ed., M.Ed., CBA & Karen Clarke, RN
The credentialing of behavior
analysts has launched a new
group of professionals into the
work force. As the behavior ana-
lytic profession grows and the
number of workers in the area
continues to multiply, more be-
havior analysts will form their
own companies or enter into
other companies and move up the
corporate ladder. As we do so,
we will bring our unique way of
conceptualizing problems into
Follette & Dougher, 1994) and
have developed interventions
from a perspective which is con-
sistent with the underpinnings of
behavior analysis (e.g., Hayes,
Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999; Koh-
lenberg & Tsai, 1991). These ef-
forts move us forward to involve
CBA in clinical contexts where
attending to and modifying ver-
bal behavior is key to effective
clinical intervention.
It is important to the future of
clinical behavior analysis to con-
tinue to seek grants to research
the effectiveness of these inter-
ventions and to refine the related
theoretical conceptualizations.
As we enter the 21st century,
these are exciting, yet challeng-
ing times for clinical behavior-
ists. I urge us to form alliances
between our academic and
community-based clinicians and
to enter into dialogues with our
the social service industry. Thus
it becomes important to know
how our science, commonly
called Organizational Behavior
Management (OBM), conceptu-
alizes and empirically solves or-
ganizational problems. This arti-
cle aims to introduce readers to
some of the basic concepts and
empirical data that OBM has to
offer.
OBM answers questions at the
organizational level of analysis.
non-behavioral colleagues.
Given our sturdy foundation in
behavior analysis, with its suc-
cesses in many clinical areas, as
we continue to branch out, we
have much to offer the field of
clinical psychology and a wider
range of people in need of assis-
tance.
References
Cautela, J. R. (1967). Covert sensitiza-
tion. Psychological Reports, 20,
459-468.
Dougher, M.J. (1993). (Ed.). Special
section on clinical behavior analy-
sis: Part One. The Behavior Ana-
lyst, 16, 269-330.
Dougher, M.J. (1994). (Ed.). Special
section on clinical behavior analy-
sis: Part Two. The Behavior Ana-
lyst, 17, 287-364.
Ferster, C. B. (1973). A functional
(continued on page 17)
Some questions that will be criti-
cal for certified behavior analysts
with management responsibilities
are: a) How do we attract work-
ers during this time of a worker
shortage? b) How do we organ-
ize what workers do? c) How do
we assess and become responsive
to various stakeholders? d) How
do we go about building success-
ful partnerships with other agen-
cies? e) How can we consult to
other social service and mental
l l
(continued on next page)
 Behavior Analyst Today
OBM Primer
(continued from previous page)
making them more efficient, im-
proving quality, and increasing
worker satisfaction?
Additional concerns needing at-
tention include: a) With top ex-
ecutives within our industry is
moving further and further from
the actual level of intervention
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with our clients, how do we en-
sure training is in touch with the
contingencies of the workers? b)
How do we set objectives which
allow measurement of worker
performance? c) How do we cre-
ate flexible organizations so that
our workers can advance and we
can learn from them? d) How do
we help agencies to manage em-
ployees from different cultures
and with different values? e)
Given tight budgets, how should
companies decide where to allo-
cate resources such as time,
money, and personnel? All of the
above are considered manage-
ment questions. I begin by ex-
ploring the way behavior analysts
reconceptualize management.
Management
Management is the acquisition
and use of resources. Behavior
analysis presents unique ways to
manage human resources. OBM
redefines management from con-
trol of the person to control of
the context/environment in which
the person works. It has devel-
oped powerful techniques for a
range of management areas. This
article will address these con-
cerns under the following head-
ings: a) Job analysis and design;
b) Interviewing and hiring poten-
tial employees; c) Setting per-
formance goals; d) Retention of
employees; e) Merit pay and
other reward systems; f) Creat-
ing flexible organizational struc-
tures; g) Performing functional
analyses; and h) Training and
managing diversity. You will no-
tice two common themes
throughout these areas: making
feedback bi-directional and trans-
forming managers into good
coaches.
Job Analysis and Design
Task and goal analyses are criti-
cal to the design of any job.
When writing a job description,
one needs to pinpoint the tasks
essential for the position. Just as
with clinical patients, you must
break down the content of the job
into discrete behavioral steps.
The question in task analysis is:
What must be known in order to
perform the task?
When one is not at the point of
being able to identify clear tasks,
goal analysis is more appropri-
ate. In goal analysis, one begins
with the more general goals of
the position. In OBM, this is re-
ferred to as “management by ob-
jectives.” Here, the position’s
goals are seen as the “tasks” of
the employee. For example, a
goal may be “a good supervisor.”
So, one would begin to explore
which behaviors are critical for
good supervisors. The question
in this analysis is: What tasks
will achieve the goal? Once a
goal analysis is completed, one is
now ready to do a task analysis
for each of the clarified
Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 6
goals/objectives.
Of course the above represents
an oversimplification of the pro-
cess. There is a large body of
research on this topic; the crucial
aspect is the validity of your task
or goal analysis. Often the way a
manager thinks a job is accom-
plished, is not what happens in
actuality. Luthans and Lockwood
(1984) looked at the behavior of
managers that received the
quickest promotions and com-
pared it to managers that were
considered most effective at their
job. They found that managers
that were considered most effec-
tive spent a significant portion
off their time managing human
resources, such as removing ob-
stacles to employees performing
their job, encouraging communi-
cation, managing the context
with reward and, disciplinary
systems. Managers who were
promoted quickest were those
that spent the largest portion of
their time politicking and en-
gaged in self promotion. As be-
havior analysts, we need to en-
sure that we promote effective
managers, not good politicians.
In some situations, it takes very
sophisticated techniques to con-
duct such an analysis. For those
interested, a good place to start
reading on this topic is Crowell
& Anderson (1983).
Once a task or a goal analysis is
done, the managing behavior
analyst still needs to look at the
position and see if the position is
sufficiently appealing: do suffi-
cient reinforcers exist to maintain
workers in that position? Failure
 Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 7
to find sufficient reinforcers
could lead to high worker turn-
over. For example, one of the
failures of the early scientific
management movement was its
approach to job analysis. This
movement placed a strong em-
phasis on efficiency to exclusion
of motivational aspects. The re-
sult was that workers often be-
came bored with their jobs and
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quit (Griffin, 1982). Employee
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turnover costs a company about
50-60% of the employees total
compensation package/turn over
(Agno, 1998). For example, in
managing behavioral technicians,
a manager should consider that
just conducting discrete trial pro-
cedures is not varied enough for
most employees. Thus job de-
scriptions are considered funda-
mental to the retention of em-
ployees.
Job descriptions are also impor-
tant for development and valida-
tion of hiring procedures. Barrett
(1996) suggested that job de-
scriptions should be simple, but
at the same time contain enough
detail that the reader can under-
stand what is done on the job. To
do this one must highlight the
major job duties. Once this has
occurred, we say that the descrip-
tion has content validity.
After job descriptions have been
created, it is critical that admin-
istrators do not violate the de-
scription. To do so is to violate
the trust between management
and employees. Trust that man-
agement will have correspon-
dence between what they say and
what they do it critical to man-
agement-employee relations
(Edwards, 1979).
Interviewing and Hiring Po-
tential Employees
Knowledge, skill, and abilities
necessary to performing the ad-
vertised position should be de-
fined in clear behavioral terms.
This is accomplished by per-
forming a task analysis of the
position (as discussed above). It
is then important to develop be-
havioral interviews to determine
if the candidate’s skills level is
likely to match the requirements
of the task steps (given training).
Questions in a behavioral inter-
view emphasize a focus on the
candidate’s actual past experi-
ence in dealing with similar
situations rather than abstract
questions on how a person
would handle a hypothetical
scenario.
After assessing the candidate’s
skill level, interviews must ex-
plain the company’s expecta-
tions or objectives for the job
position. This will allow em-
ployees to have an honest view
of the company and will factor
in their decision to take the job;
this, in turn, may reduce turn-
over rates. Finally, it is impor-
tant to note the candidate’s
knowledge about the company.
Did they ask questions relevant
to the organization’s culture and
overall goals?
Setting Performance Goals
In addition to analyzing the job,
performance goals need to be set
for the position. Probably the
best established finding of stud-
ies on goal setting is that work-
Behavior Analyst Today
ers will perform at a higher level
when given a specific goal than
when simply asked to do your
best (Locke, Shaw, Saari, &
Latham, 1981; Locke & Latham,
1984). In addition, evaluative
feedback on, goals and reward-
ing of successful goal comple-
tion is critical (Alvosius &,
Sultzer-Azaroff, 1990; Methot,
Williams, Cummings, & Brad-
shaw, 1996; Richman, Riordan,
Reiss, Pyles, & Baily, 1988).
While the use of rewards has
unfortunately been somewhat
controversial (see Kohn, 1996;
Lepper, Kevney, & Drake,
1996), critical analysis of the
research and studies on this
topic demonstrate that in prop-
erly designed programs rewards
increase creativity, performance,
quality and intrinsic motivation
(Cameron & Peirce, 1994; Cam-
eron & Peirce, 1996; Dickinson,
1989; Eisenberger & Cameron,
1996; Lorenzi, 1988; LaFleur &
Hyten, 1995). In short, simple
rewards such as smiles, praise,
or taking the time to ask your-
self if there is an employee that
you can tell what a good job
they did, can “bring out the
best” in people (Daniels, 1994).
A particular example of this
principle was demonstrated in
research conducted at Park
Mills, Inc. Before the goal set-
ting program began, employees’
average attendance rate was
86%. As part of the goal setting
program, they agreed to raise
their average attendance rate to
93%. Each day the attendance
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 Behavior Analyst Today
(continued from previous page)
was charted so that workers
could be kept informed as to their
progress toward their goal.
Within four weeks the goal was
achieved and surpassed (94.3%).
Unfortunately the study was only
continued for nine weeks so that
maintenance remained a ques-
tion. One study demonstrating
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long term beneficial effects is
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Latham and Locke (1979). Log-
gers were given truck loading
goals. In this study 94% of the
loggers were achieving higher
loading rates from their baseline
seven years later.
Retention of Employees
Agno (1998) has stated that sev-
eral factors contribute to em-
ployee turnover. Factors identi-
fied were: a) improper recruit-
ment, b) the nature of the job
and the company, and c) the
characteristics of the individual
employee. While these three
broad areas do contribute to em-
ployee turnover, when there is a
problem retaining employees, an
OBM approach would direct
companies to perform a func-
tional analysis of employee turn-
over in order to determine why
people are leaving in this specific
situation (steps in conducting a
functional analysis are discussed
below). Through this assessment,
answers can be found that may
help to either redesign the job,
provide incentives, or other in-
terventions that may prevent
leaving. In addition, as Agno
(1998) points out, retention
should be a goal from the outset:
from the time of designing the
job description and conducting
the interviews.
Merit Pay and Other Reward
Systems
While classical management the-
ory tended to overemphasize the
role of money in satisfaction
(Wall Street Journal, 1987) and
humanistic theories of human
behavior tend to believe that only
a survival level wage is impor-
tant (and that reward may de-
crease motivation), performance-
based wage bonuses have been
shown to provide an excellent
reward structure for employees
and have been shown to increase
motivation toward target behav-
iors even in the Soviet Union.
However, merit pay structures
have not worked in every case.
Merit pay is best viewed as one
set of contingencies that factor
into job performance. Other con-
tingencies that might factor in are
things like social reinforcers and
the opportunity for advancement
and professional development.
Sadly however, in most organiza-
tions pay is not contingent on the
performance of critical behaviors
and maybe this is something that
behavior analysts can help
change.
Creating Flexible Organiza-
tional Structures
As the functional science of be-
havior analysis moves into
organizational creation, we will
need to decide how a focus on
function can create flexible or-
ganizational structures. Will our
companies be hierarchical or
work in teams (e.g., will contin-
Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 8
gencies be placed on individual
performance or group perform-
ance)? Contrary to current trends,
most successful companies have
some degree of hierarchy.
Part of a manager’s role is to
stand tall in turbulent change and
enlist the participation of col-
leagues to realize the organiza-
tion’s vision. In general, a man-
ager’s job is often chaotic and
unpredictable. Thus far, no pat
formula exists that takes into ac-
count all of the variables in-
volved in being a successful
manager. One study looking at
management found that much of
what managers do is put out the
multitude of brush fires that oc-
cur every day in the work place.
They appear to be interrupted all
day long. Often they have no
time for setting up control sys-
tems. It is a myth that they make
decisions on plentiful and precise
knowledge. Managers must focus
on scarce human resources and
have flexible yet sound methods
for responding to the demands of
the work environment.
In a book titled, Why Nothing
Works, Marvin Harris looked at
the ecology of industrial systems
in American. He found environ-
mental factors which selected for
the exact opposite of quality. In
the area of management, looking
at systemic factors that select
against quality is at the heart of
what has come to be known as
Total Quality Management or
TQM. TQM is based on achiev-
ing quality through analysis of
and control of variation in sys-
tems. This process is referred to
 Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 9
as “statistical process control.”
The idea of statistical process
control is to look at normal
variation within the system and
make decisions which take into
account that variation. For ex-
ample, a baseball team loses
three games in a row, so the
owners fire the skipper. Then the
team wins its next two. It’s easy
to assume that they won because
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of the new manager. Perhaps the
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
team was feeling anxious be-
cause management had shifted.
Or, perhaps this was purely an
incidence of statistical regression
to the mean. No team loses every
game. It’s expensive to fire and
hire employees.
Statistics regression to the mean
is a very real phenomena and has
to be taken into account in or-
ganizational decisions (see Han-
tula, 1995; Hopkins, 1995; Pfadt
& Wheeler, 1995 for excellent
ways that this can be done). Un-
fortunately, many managers will
draw the conclusion that praise
does not work and stop praising
their employees and create rules
common to “management by ex-
ception.” Another example of
statistical regression is the case
of a manager who praises an em-
ployee for outstanding work
(when the work was much better
than average). After the praise if
the manager looks at the next in-
stance of performance, she might
wrongly conclude that the praise
was ineffective due to statistical
regression to the mean. Is this
because the praise did not work?
No, praise like any form of rein-
forcement is a change factor over
time; it is probabilistic. Regres-
sion occurs because a host of fac-
tors were required to go into this
particular performance product,
and any one of those factors
might change for the next per-
formance and probably will.
Mawhinney (1987,1992a, 1992b)
worked on an integration of
OBM and TQM. This integration
can be used to achieve a system
that results in high-powered
achievement and decreased ran-
dom aversives for employees.
The integrated TQM and OBM
view tries to: (1) discover and
utilize employees’ wide range of
knowledge, skills, and abilities;
(2) observe the different kinds of
skills needed by different manag-
ers; (3) answer the question:
What makes an effective man-
ager? (4) create, change, and
implement corporate policies and
procedures that enhance organ-
izational members’ ability to
function in teams; and (5) under-
stand technical skills needed for
employees to function, especially
at lower levels.
In answering the above ques-
tions, the issue of the overall
structure of an organization
arises. One of the most common
structures in organizations in-
cludes a middle management
level. These managers often
manage supervisors. They tend to
worry about staffing for all lower
level management functions and
develop a culture- an environ-
ment where those levels can
function in a way that people can
work together. Middle manage-
ment does less strategic planning
than upper level management. As
companies have moved away
Behavior Analyst Today
from hierarchies toward what is
called “flat companies,” middle
management is becoming an ex-
tinct species. Companies are let-
ting go of middle managers by
putting more trust on the shoul-
ders of the employees.
One way in which middle man-
agement has tried to survive die
off has been to develop a host of
informal roles such as idea gen-
erators, seeing opportunities for
growth, innovation, and expan-
sion and becoming the techno-
logical gate keepers and prob-
lem-solvers. Middle managers
work in the system and are con-
cerned with the nuts and bolts of
solving problems.
Another level of organizational
structure that certified behavior
analysts might aim for is senior
level management. Senior man-
agers chart the long range course
of the organization. Their job is
to work at the system level of
analysis. They are often consid-
ered the leaders of the organiza-
tion and provide opportunities to
lower level management workers
to expand into new areas. They
define the new paths which the
organization will pursue. They
develop abilities and the skills of
the workers below them. They
are expected to provide a vision
and to empower, coach, and
guide the people who work under
them.
Creating Organizational Rules
As changes occur in the health
market, so do management prac-
tices. To be managers, we need
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 Behavior Analyst Today
(continued from previous page)
to be rule driven. The most
common rules include customer
satisfaction and designing con-
tingencies to reduce the statistical
variation in daily performance.
But foremost is maintaining fo-
cus on the minute-to-minute mat-
ters of each day. In this worker
shortage environment, it involves
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understanding the needs of the
current work force. Surveys sug-
gest that today’s 18 to 35 year-
old group wants challenges and
jobs that provide for professional
development. Designing or re-
designing jobs to provide chal-
lenges and development will cut
down on employee turnover.
Vision, policy and procedure are
often discussed and agreed on in
strategic planning meetings.
From these meetings often
emerge the rules that will guide
the company into the future. Stra-
tegic planning is a combination
of knowing the market, as well as
the knowledge, skills and ability
of the staff. In addition on needs
to use past relevant events to
predict future relevant events.
This often calls for a process to
prioritize events. Look to the
community to see what behaviors
are currently being selected.
The above process is fraught
with problems. For example, the
process could go astray because a
company banking on the market-
ability of a new technology
might underestimates the possi-
bility of advances in existing
technology. So here again man-
agers must often work with less
than perfect information.
A Functional Analysis of Pe r-
formance Problems
As with any performance prob-
lem, behavioral management
strategies suggest the perform-
ance of a careful functional
analysis (Skinner, 1953; Luthans,
1980). This process is probably
well known by most behavior
analysts reading this paper but
the focus here is on applications
for management problems. How
does one go about conducting a
functional analysis with a prob-
lem solving focus? A functional
analysis has five major steps: (1)
identifying critical behaviors to
be addressed; (2) measurement of
the behavior; (3) the functional
analysis itself (identifying the
antecedents and consequences);
(4) the development of an inter-
vention strategy; and (5) evalua-
tion to ensure that performance
improvement is occurring (Lu-
thans, 1980).
The first step is to conduct a be-
havioral audit (Luthans & Mar-
tinko, 1976). The audit would
use either internal staff special-
ists such as a human resource
manager or it would use outside
consultants. Such an audit should
systematically analyze each job
in question using job analysis
techniques commonly employed
in personnel administration. The
advantage of this approach can
be realized by the audit. In addi-
tion, the advantages of staff ex-
pertise and consistency can be
gained (Luthans, 1980). In this
stage we would look to see if the
behavior that we are looking for
Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 10
can be measured and if it has a
direct impact on performance
outcome (Mager & Pipe, 1984).
The question to be asked here is:
Is the change in behavior per-
formance large enough to make a
difference in outcome?
In the second phase, we measure
and record the behavior in ques-
tion in the performance issue. A
baseline frequency would be ob-
tained. This frequency should be
compared to expected frequen-
cies. Sometimes in this part of
the analysis we realize that the
problem is not as big as we
thought or that it is bigger than
we believed.
In the third phase, we conduct a
functional analysis of the prob-
lem behavior. This is we look at
the antecedents and conse-
quences of performance. Mager
and Pipe’s (1984) book on ana-
lyzing performance problems
contains a flow diagram that is
excellent for ensuring that all
factors are considered in a func-
tional analysis. A good func-
tional analysis pinpoints the con-
text of the problem and leads to
direct solutions for organiza-
tional behavior modification.
In step four, we would develop
an intervention strategy based on
the function of the performance
deficit. For example, if the rea-
son an employee is missing a lot
of work is that they found the job
boring (lack of reinforcers),
them we could apply restructur-
ing techniques to build more re-
inforcers into the position. If we
discovered that employees’ at-
 Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 11
tendance declined after a new
manager came on and employees
reported interactions with him as
extremely aversive, we could re-
structure the workplace so that
the employees would be more
assertive and teach the manager
to use positive reinforcement
with those around him (Daniels,
1994).
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In step five, we evaluate to see if
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we are having the desired effect.
If we are not, then a change in
the strategy is needed. Perhaps
even with instruction, the man-
ager can not stop saying mean
things. At this point we may
want to try a direct scripting ap-
proach with the manager and be
sure to include positive rein-
forcement for the desired
changes in the manager’s behav-
ior.
Training and Managing
Diversity
While a performance deficit
should not automatically be as-
sumed to be a training issue
(Mager & Pipe, 1984), some por-
tion are. The critical point is a
thorough assessment of the situa-
tion. Mager and Pipe (1984) pre-
sent a detailed flow chart that
should be used in assessing per-
formance problems. Such an
analysis may reveal that a prob-
lem is a skills deficit or it may
reveal that a problem is really a
motivational deficit. While a mo-
tivational deficit may be better
addressed through other tech-
niques such are removal of ob-
stacles or aversive interference
with performance or to apply
some positive consequences for
completion, a skills deficit would
warrant some type of formal
training program.
The key to designing a training is
to perform a task and goal analy-
sis of the real world job
(Tiemann & Markle, 1990). To
perform such an analysis, one
must see each real world job as
an observable situation in which
you can poke about, watch what
they do, how often they do it and,
if the task is simple enough, a
good instructor may even try the
task themselves. These factors
are discussed above in the sec-
tion on job interviews.
A trainer planning instruction for
a relatively specific job can con-
centrate upon the component
tasks of that particular job. How-
ever, there are reasons why edu-
cators may plan their curriculum
in a different way. First, identify-
ing the component tasks of all
jobs would be impractical (Tie-
mann & Markle, 1990; Bellamy,
Horner, & Inman, 1979). Second,
the trainer must prepare students
for aspects of their future job,
such as productivity in the or-
ganization’s culture or ethical
responses. For these particular
sequences a goal analysis would
be a better strategy.
At Devereux, our foster care’s
Teaching Families Program is an
excellent example of using both
task and goal analysis strategies.
The program was designed by
Barry McCurdy, Ph.D., a behav-
ioral psychologist with many
years experience in designing
curriculum. The curriculum is in
modular form and pre-post
Behavior Analyst Today
analyses are performed. The
Teaching Family home program
uses task-analyzed skills such as
using praise and feedback, and
trains these skills. The training of
these skills incorporates instruc-
tion, role-play, modeling, feed-
back, and rewards such as cer-
tificates of completion.
An example of a subject matter
that would use a goal analysis
predominantly, and a task analy-
sis as a secondary way of in-
structing, would be leadership
training (Fleming, 1992). Lead-
ership training is critical to an
organization’s ability to survive
(Mawhinney, 1992b). Leaders
need to give special attention to
the autonomy and feedback char-
acteristics of their employees’
jobs. Autonomy involves em-
powering their subordinates to
make decisions and solve their
own problems. In other words,
giving employees more control
over their own jobs. Feedback
can be built into some jobs and
leaders need to be taught how to
do this in job design. In addition,
leaders also must provide spe-
cific, immediate performance
feedback to their employees.
Managers should also build in a
“feed forward system” (Kreitner,
1982) so that employees can
make contributions to managers
as well. From an OBM perspec-
tive it is important to teach the
basic learning skills such as op-
erant conditioning techniques
such as reinforcer preference sur-
veys and functional analysis to
managers. Managers can be
taught to use nonfinancial re-
(continued on next page)
 Behavior Analyst Today
(continued from previous page)
wards such as feedback systems
and contingent recognition / at-
tention.
One final area of training is to
train managers to appreciate and
communicate effectively with
employees from various cultures.
The common trend is to think of
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
culture as differences between
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
people. Culture is much more
than just differences, however.
People who share a particular
culture or a related culture, adopt
similar ideas and values for in-
terpreting events. Although
membership in a specific cul-
tural group does not determine
behavior, members are exposed
to, (i.e., socialized by), the same
set of expectations and conse-
quences for acting in a particular
way. As a result, certain types of
behavior becomes more probable
(Banks, 1994; Skinner, 1974). It
is also important to remember
that each worker in an agency is
simultaneously a member of mul-
tiple groups according to race,
ethnicity, religion, class, gender,
sexuality, and disability. The lit-
erature suggests lack of apprecia-
tion of different cultures can
lessen worker self-esteem (Ke-
hoe, 1982).
Communication issues in
management
Communication is an interper-
sonal process, that involves the
exchange of behavior between
two or more individuals (Ivance-
vich & Matteson, 1987). Several
topics often fall under the head-
ing of communication: (1) How
are conflicts resolved and dealt
with? (2) How is the chain of
command structured to ensure
that instructions and commands
flow down and through the chain
of command? (3) How are re-
ports, inquiries, and requests
handled and move up the chain
of command? (4) How do sub-
groups communicate (i.e., do
they communicate directly or
does information need to flow up
the chain of command to a junc-
ture point, where the subgroups
share the same supervisor)? (4)
Does the staff have free reign to
collect and disseminate nonau-
thoritative information in their
role as an extension of the com-
pany? (5) Does feedback reach
those it should?
Improving the lines of communi-
cation is often seen as a critical
role for managing human re-
sources. If the reasons for poor
communication are either a skills
deficit or a minor motivational
deficit, then team building ac-
tivities, which are designed to
open communication and build
trust could address this problem.
Such activities would include
defining conflicts, establishing
cooperative work goals and
ground rules, negotiating areas
of responsibility, generating
more appropriate responses to
each other, and designing group
responses to problems.
The above interventions will only
work if a serious motivational
deficit does not exist because
they rely on all players entering
into a collaborative set. If this is
not the case or other patterns of
Vol. 1 No. 1 Page 12
communication are so well re-
hearsed that they are automatic,
then efforts are sure to be sabo-
taged. If the latter is the case,
then a functional analysis of each
communicator needs to be com-
pleted to decide on how to pro-
ceed.
Implications for Graduate
Training Programs in ABA
As might be guessed from the
tone of this article, I strongly be-
lieve that all students of behavior
analysis should take some OBM
coursework. This is largely be-
cause they will all consult to at
least one company, the one they
work for, or manage. To train our
students in OBM allows them to
have the opportunity to change
the face of the current social ser-
vice and behavioral health mar-
kets and create an environment
for continuous quality improve-
ment.
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